44 THE PUPA OR CHRYSALIS. 



sembles it more closely than that of the worm-like 

 larva. When the period of this change approaches, 

 and the old epidermis is ready to be peeled off, the 

 subjacent organs, instead of retaining their old form, 

 undergo a gradual alteration, by which the organs of the 

 mature insect are as it were roughly sketched out, and 

 when at length the moulting occurs, the larva alto- 

 gether disappears, and in its place we have a creature 

 presenting a grotesque resemblance to the parent from 

 whose egg it sprung. The different organs, however, 

 although distinctly recognizable, are not yet of any use ; 

 in many cases, in fact, the skin is perfectly continuous 

 over the body and limbs, so that the latter are inca- 

 pable even of being moved by external force, and the 

 insect has to pass a considerable period in this help- 

 less condition, before its organs have acquired the 

 perfection necessary to enable them to perform their 

 functions. For this reason the insect, before under- 

 going its last change, is always careful to retire to 

 some sheltered situation, where it may be protected 

 from external violence, and the whole of the second 

 period of its existence is usually passed in a state of 

 death-like stillness, although certain movements may 

 generally be called forth by any application which 

 inconveniences the creature. To the insect in this 

 state, entomologists give the general name of pupa* ; 

 and the pupae of some insects are called chrysalids, or 

 aur elite -f. 



* The word pupa is the Latin for a baby ; and it is applied 

 to insects in this condition, from the ludicrous resemblance 

 which some of them present to an infant tightly rolled up in 

 swaddling-clothes. 



t The terms chrysalis (from the Greek chrusos, gold) and 

 aurelia (from the Latin aurum) are properly applied only to the 



